Geely aims for 18% growth in sales this year

Shanghai January 10 (Gasgoo.com) In early 2010, Geely set its sales goal at 22%, a figure which is relatively conservative when compared with fellow automakers Chery and BYD. Geely still aims to play a fairly conservative role in 2011, having announced its sales target as 18%, equivalent to 490,000 vehicles (compared to Chery's goal of 900,000 vehicles.)

"Geely wishes to adjust its development strategy from "quick" to  "stable," said Yang Jian, President of Geely Group in response to ushering this new development plan.

Geely Group's annual conference on sales opened in Hangzhou a few days ago, where Yang Jian mentioned his development strategy of "two transitions, two adjustments," which emphasizes Geely's shift from "internationalization" to "globalization" and from a "technology basis" to a "quality basis", as well as adjusting from "fast-paced development" to "stable development" and from "product management" to "brand management." This is in stark contrast with Geely's outlook in past years.

According to reports, 2011 is slated to be Geely's first year in the course to break the 1 million vehicle mark. In December of 2010, the company's CEO Liu Jinliang took concrete steps toward this goal, including researching over 40 models in five technology platforms and 15 product platforms, with plans to release over ten models for every brand. From 2011 to 2015, Geely's brands are expected to yield sales figures reaching 30,000 vehicles each, allowing the company to attain its sales goal of 1 million vehicles in 2015.

These newly released objectives of 'stable development' may signify that Geely may be slowing down in its pursuit of reaching said sales figures.

Plans of stable development have their roots in the automobile market's transformation. According to Liu Jinliang, due to a series of policy reforms and the influence of the economy as a whole, growth in the Chinese automobile market this year will not resemble 30% as before, but rather grow at approximately 10%, with independent manufacturers being affected the most.

The second reason is strongly related with Geely's basic business structure. Liu Jinliang revealed that one of Geely's goals for 2011 is to relentlessly explore systematization options. In a short three month period at the end of last year, Geely already formally established three brands, each targeting specific customer tastes instead of different price ranges.

 Industry insiders believe that Geely's arrangement of brands according to consumer preferences as opposed to varying price ranges is a relatively pragmatic strategy. According to one industry expert, "Many independent brands aim to make a breakthrough, but as 2010 market figures can attest to, entering the 20,000 yuan and over mid- and high-end sector is still a dream for most of them. Being able to take the 10,000 yuan market and divide it according to various preferences is a much more realistic development strategy.

According to Geely's 2007 Ningbo Declaration, the company's strategic transition plan can be divided into three stages. The first stage is Geely gaining public recognition (already long since attained.) The second stage, from 2010 to 2012, is the company's transition to becoming an influential brand. With the establishment of its three brands, it has already completed one of the requirements for passing this stage. Only when this stage is complete, can Geely reach its third and final goal of becoming a competitive brand in 2015.